# Can you put in to much silica humidity beads in a wineador?



## falconman515 (Jul 10, 2011)

I have a small 8 bottle Emerson wine cooler that I am converting to a small wineador for my small collection of singles.

I have the 2 new cedar shelves coming in the mail along with 1/2 pound of silica humidity beads.

1/2 pound of beads is said to humidify a space of 2 1/2 cubic feet but my cooler is very small and only 0.8 cubic feet.

Should I maybe just put in like 1/4 pound (half of what I ordered) of beads in my cooler as that would essentially humidify 1 1/4 cubic feet or should I be putting in the exact amount or maybe just the whole 1/2 pound?

What should I do in this scenario.

This is a little more than needed but its ok to put in more than stated correct? These are to keep your Rh stabel regardless if there is more because even if there is more that doesn't mean its gonna be way more humidity correct?

Just want to dot my I's and cross my T's before all my materials arrive.

Thanks so much for all the info.


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## mike91LX (Aug 12, 2009)

if you have space for it i would put the whole 1/2 lb in. it wont hurt anything you just wont have to recharge the beads as often


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## falconman515 (Jul 10, 2011)

mike91LX said:


> if you have space for it i would put the whole 1/2 lb in. it wont hurt anything you just wont have to recharge the beads as often


There is only two shelves so I thought I would get a media bag (from the petstore) that fits half in one bag for the top shelf and the other half on the bottom shelf in another bag.

How does this sound?


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## CALIFORNIA KID (Nov 21, 2010)

falconman515 said:


> There is only two shelves so I thought I would get a media bag (from the petstore) that fits half in one bag for the top shelf and the other half on the bottom shelf in another bag.
> 
> How does this sound?


It sounds good to me. You cant really have to much media. It just increases how long between recharges. I like the idea of splitting the media between drawers.


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## falconman515 (Jul 10, 2011)

CALIFORNIA KID said:


> It sounds good to me. You cant really have to much media. It just increases how long between recharges. I like the idea of splitting the media between drawers.


Sweet! Thanks for the info and all the help guys.

I knew I had more than was needed but if it doesn't hurt and just helps recharge after the door is open faster then I have about 4 inches behind my cedar trays on each shelf to spare. I just figured I would split the 1/2 pound into two bags (1/4 pound in each) so I had ample beads for humidity and even though the shelves are like 3 inches form each other I though why not split em and put em on each shelf.

I have a very small wine cooler and the width is about 14" inches from left to right and I will be laying these backs horizontally on the back of the wire shelves behind the cedar trays and *the beads will be sitting right in front of the fan. Is this not recommended having them sitting in front of the fan or is it fine?*

Thanks again for the info.


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## mike91LX (Aug 12, 2009)

its probably best to put one by the drain hole in the bottom that way it can suck up some of the condensation. if the bag in front of the fan just has air blowing over it that would be fine but i wouldnt keep it there if it is actually blocking air flow


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## falconman515 (Jul 10, 2011)

mike91LX said:


> its probably best to put one by the drain hole in the bottom that way it can suck up some of the condensation. if the bag in front of the fan just has air blowing over it that would be fine but i wouldnt keep it there if it is actually blocking air flow


I was thinking about buying a thrid bag and put just a little bit of silica beads in it and lay it in the condensation area at the bottom area of the cooler kinda flat so it soaks it up.

So 1 1/4lb bag on the back of each shelf and maybe a couple teaspoon fools of beads in another small flat back to lay over the condensation area.

How does that sound?

With this set-up in a small 8 bottle 0.8 cubic feet cooler it will keep the humidity perfect right?


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## falconman515 (Jul 10, 2011)

Question: My Rh after I opened my humidor the other day hasn't gotten any higher than 61%

It was holding at 66% perfect for about 2-3 days then I opened it to do a few things for a few, took the shelves out and then when I was done (no more than a few minutes) I Put it all back in and the Rh hasn't gotten higher than 61% in 2 days.

My beads are sitting in the condensation area sucking it all up (seems to be a lot of condensation), is that the reason... it doesn't make sense cause I thought the more wet the beads the more humidity but they are all wet (not to much pure white beads) and the Rh just wont go back up all the sudden.

I've got a 100 dollar order of sticks coming in Friday the 29th and I need to have this baby stable before they arrive.

What am I doing wrong? Are they to wet? not enough dry / wet ratio? are my beads not all that good? (I got them from cheaphumidors.com...link below) Should I be switching to KL?

Need help guys! Thanks and I look forward to your replies.

Link to the beads I am using: Cheap Humidors Cigar Humidor Beads


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## falconman515 (Jul 10, 2011)

Well it got up to 64% today .... why do I have 70% beads but cant seem to get this thing to go any higher than 65% even if I wanted to??? And I have the Caliber III placed right inside the tray with the cigars (not on the front of the shelves or anything... still trying to get a true reading by doing this before I move it to the front and mark the difference).

The fluctuation of humidity is really weird in my cooler. Anyone know why this may be? I would like to have more control over my set-up but for some reason I don't.


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## Dizzy (Mar 19, 2011)

How is the seal on the door of the cooler? With that amount of beads for that small of a space, it sounds like you're losing some RH through leaks. Also, what percentage of your beads are clear? True statement of "the more beads the better," but you want to make sure there are a good amount of clear beads and some white ones (not hydrated). Most here seem to say between 70-80 percent of your beads should be clear, depending on all of the other factors going into it.


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## falconman515 (Jul 10, 2011)

Dizzy said:


> How is the seal on the door of the cooler? With that amount of beads for that small of a space, it sounds like you're losing some RH through leaks. Also, what percentage of your beads are clear? True statement of "the more beads the better," but you want to make sure there are a good amount of clear beads and some white ones (not hydrated). Most here seem to say between 70-80 percent of your beads should be clear, depending on all of the other factors going into it.


Seal is perfect! The temperature stay EXACT! So I'm sure the seal is fine and this small cooler doesn't have a condensation tube out so no Rh is leaking that way either.

It has since gotten back up to 65% today but like I said it wont go any higher than 65% with 70% beads in there.

And will this cause that problem if most of the beads are wet? It seems that since I had the beads near the small little V shape in the bottom for the condensation to catch they got quite wet and when I couldn't get the Rh I may have got way more wet than I needed to and not enough are dry.

Will the Rh not get high or regulate properly if there are not enough beads dry vs. wet?

Thanks for any help or suggestion you can give me, like I said I have a big order of high quality sticks coming in next Friday and really this bad boy stable before then.

I have since moved the 2 bags of beads away from the small V that catches the condensation. so the beads will not be getting any more soaked than they are now. If I need to dry some beads out how do I go about doing that?

Thanks again for all the help guys.


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## Dizzy (Mar 19, 2011)

Probably best to have the beads somewhere you don't expect any excess moisture to collect. There are a couple more things to think about... How long did you let your spanish cedar season for? If you just let the RH climb to 70, and then pulled the extra media out, the cedar may not have seasoned long/well enough and still may be absorbing some of the moisture in the air. Remember, like HerfNTerf said about seasoning, just because the air is at a certain RH, doesn't mean the wood is. 

Other than that, I'm not exactly sure what your problem could be. I have 4oz of HF beads in my Treasure Dome, and it's been holding solid at 1% RH lower than what the beads specify.


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## falconman515 (Jul 10, 2011)

Dizzy said:


> Probably best to have the beads somewhere you don't expect any excess moisture to collect. There are a couple more things to think about... How long did you let your spanish cedar season for? If you just let the RH climb to 70, and then pulled the extra media out, the cedar may not have seasoned long/well enough and still may be absorbing some of the moisture in the air. Remember, like HerfNTerf said about seasoning, just because the air is at a certain RH, doesn't mean the wood is.
> 
> Other than that, I'm not exactly sure what your problem could be. I have 4oz of HF beads in my Treasure Dome, and it's been holding solid at 1% RH lower than what the beads specify.


I let it season for a couple days then put my sticks in. Its been 8 days now since Its been done (6 days since the sticks have been in there). I originally had the beads and a bowl of DW with a sponge in there sitting on a plastic bag soaked with DW to get the seasoning of the wood going.

I have of course pulled out the DW and sponge on day 3 to put the sticks in and around day 4 or 5 it was sitting ok at 65% (5% below stated bead humidity) and since then has gone down and up but never higher than 65%.

I would think after a week the wood has been good and probably sucked some moisture out of my sticks since I may have put them in too soon.

Just checked it and its still at 65% since I moved the away from the condensation but still wont go higher.


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## dr.dirty (Apr 21, 2011)

I run roughly 6lbs of KL in my wineador with very little DW. I live in the SOCAL desert and we have a average RH of 20% My wineador holds 65-67% all day long. The best part about more media is that when you open the door you loose most of the RH you are trying to maintain. With larger amounts of media your fridge will recover much quicker.


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## CraigJS (Dec 23, 2009)

Don't worry so much about not getting to 70%. If you can hold at 65% you don't have a problem, your smokes will love it.. So will you, they'll smoke better.


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